We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Fairytale of Birmingham In the comments to my previous post, Zerren Yeoville was inspired by the Pogues’ 1987 classic Fairytale of New York to pen the following lines for Birmingham in its current travails:
‘They’ve got rats big as cats
They’ve got rivers of mould
The smell goes right through ya
You’d best have a cold
When you first took the bins out
On a cold winter’s eve
You promised me dustcarts
were “waiting, you’ll see”….’
The rats as big as cats were also mentioned in the Sun‘s headline today:
NO END IN SIGHT Huge blow for locals in UK’s ‘third-world city’ where Army called in to tackle cat-sized rats & 21k TONS of rubbish
A major incident has already been declared by Birmingham City Council
Lest anyone think the Sun is being melodramatic, the BBC’s headline does not merely feature cat-sized rats but cat-sized rats who have begun their insurrection against humanity:
‘Cat-sized rats are attacking our cars’
NickM also provided commentary in verse on the Birmingham bin strike, but, unless I have misunderstood, that one was written by A.I. so it doesn’t count.
Gosh, ChatGPT is getting alarmingly good.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Wee Mad Arthur has been described as an urbanised Nac Mac Feegle, although he was raised as a gnome. Fiendishly strong, and suspiciously Geordie, he kills rats for free (because he can sell them on to the many dwarfish eateries in the city).
I’m sure Vetinari would know what to do and who to ask to do it.
Inmates on long sentences may recall that I was sometimes in the habit of creating such song parodies and posting them here.
So that’s what it’s come to for me – replaced by AI. I guess there’s nothing left for me now but banana pudding on the verandah at Shady Acres.
llater,
llamas
A fun pastime is to ask ChatGPT to write a sonnet about a current or historical event.
Yes, Natalie, it was written by AI (ChatGPT-4o) in the style of noted Brummie glam-rockers, Slade. And, yes, AI is getting very, very good at lots of things. Such as art.
llamas,
It’s not that good – yet. In the likes of The Guardian we’ve already got poets moaning about being replaced. I for one am terrified by the prospect of a national poetry strike. I mean life without professional verse is no life at all and indeed the merely existing would envy the dead..
The Sanity Inspector,
Forget about current affairs! God, obviously, is a Geordie so here’s the first chapter of Genesis as it ought to be…
AI is scary-good. I have had three moments in my life where I just knew things had changed. The first was my ZX Spectrum as kid, the second was the internet and the third is AI. Total phase-shifts. Alas, none of them can clean up the West Midlands.
John,
Oh, for a Vetinari!
llamas, you mean like this…
“The Corn Laws Are Done (Now Pass the Ale!)”
In eighteen-forty-six, oh aye,
The Corn Laws met their last goodbye.
For years the toffs had lined their plates,
While workers starved behind their gates.
The landlords cried, “Protect our grain!
Without these laws, we’ll feel the strain!”
But the poor folk scoffed, “You’ve had your fill,
While we’ve been left to starve and chill!”
The mills of Manchester made their stand,
Free trade, they cried, would save the land.
“Cheaper bread for all!” they said,
“Let’s end this law, and fill our bread!”
Sir Robert Peel, he switched his tune,
Much to his party’s loud harpoon.
The Tories yelled, “You traitorous cad!
You’ve sold us out – it’s bloody mad!”
But Peel just shrugged, “I’ve done what’s right,
Your bellies are full, but theirs are shite!
The Irish famine’s laid it bare,
We’ve got to spread the grain elsewhere!”
The repeal went through, the laws were scrapped,
The landlords fumed, their fortunes zapped.
But workers cheered, “We’ll eat tonight!
Now pass the ale, let’s drink delight!”
So here’s to Peel, who took the fall,
He faced the wrath and risked it all.
The Corn Laws died, the bread got cheap,
And landlords cried themselves to sleep.
We really are going back to the 1970s in certain ways: nationalisation of certain industries, rising union militancy; inflation; general sense that things are falling apart. But at least in the 70s we had Roxy Music, David Bowie, my football team Ipswich Town was doing well, Roger Moore made some fun Bond films, and Maggie won the leadership of the Tory Party.
JP,
We’ve also got John Lydon being one of the stunningly few public figures telling it as it is.
And yes, JP, we needed punk at the end of the ’70s, just as we needed Maggie. Let’s face it quasi-symphonic triple-disc albums had got way too bloated so punk was a necessary reset just as Thatcher and Ronnie were.
It is sheer genius. But it needs a chorus…
The boys of the council refuse team
On strike for better pay
And the bin bags piling higher
Day by day
And with David Bowie we had Diamond Dogs – the album – which started with the spoken Future Legends track –
And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy
thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in Temperance Building
High on Poacher’s Hill
And red, mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheels
Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coverting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers
Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue
Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers
Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald
Any day now
The Year of the Diamond Dogs
This ain’t Rock’n’Roll
This is Genocide.
hang on…is ChatGPT…based?
Definitely how shit is going down in the UK right now.
“If Adolph Hitler, flew in today,
You’d send a limousine anyway”
FWIW, I’ve clicked on all the links in Natalie’s post hopeful that I could see a rat the size of a cat. And nothing… I’m really quite disappointed. I mean a rat the size of a cat would be cool as long as it was on a different continent than me.
As to this strike, being a binman is not a complicated job. I don’t mean to disrespect them, they provide a valuable service, and it is hard physical labour, but it doesn’t take a college degree, you can learn it pretty quickly.. So, if the current bin men don’t want to do it then hire some people who do. I looked, the unemployment rate in Birmingham is over 7%. FWIW, here in the US in most cities trash collection is privatized, and I’ve never heard of a trash collector strike here. Whereas it seems to happen all the time in the UK.
As I have already said on another thread on this subject – it makes no sense for government, or anyone else, to give “Collective Bargaining” powers (immunity from the normal law – see W.H. Hutt “The Strike Threat System”) and then complain about the results.
Either stop “Collective Bargaining” or get used to piles of rubbish and, eventually, dead bodies rotting in the streets.
Do not grant powers by a series of Acts of Parliament (1875, 1906 and on and on) and then complain about the results.
And, yes, Winston Churchill himself was guilty of this contradictory behaviour – first supporting the utterly extreme 1906 Trade Union Act and then complaining about the rise of UNEMPLOYMENT (caused by Collective Bargaining) and setting up “Labour Exchanges” in order to be seen “doing something” – and even calling in the army against strikes created by the union powers that Acts of Parliament (Acts he supported) had created.
Do not support Acts of Parliament and then complain about the (inevitable) results of these Acts of Parliament.
If you support an Act of Parliament that declares you are a “strike breaker” if you, for example, bury your mother and father (because the grave diggers are unionised and are not turning up or work – declaring they are “on strike”) do not complain about the situation – at least not if you are not prepared to repeal the Acts of Parliament you supported.
Repeal the Acts of Parliament that created the crises – or SHUT UP.
Dunno about now, but it certainly used to be a thing.
I don’t know if it’s now privatised in New York, but I know a mate of mine in Seattle pays $160 a month just to get his bins emptied (separate from his $1100ish per month property tax). Seems rather costly to me, all things considered.
The “rats attacking cars” is a real thing – a newish one, that’s only going to get worse. Thank you, eco-SJW’s, and may it happen to yours!
Ya’ see, back in the good old days (i.e., the days my cars were made; my newest is a 2008), car wires’ insulation was made of icky stuff; terpenes, crude oil derivatives, chemicals like that. Then somebody decided “wiring insulation must be more eco-friendly!” and they started making the insulation from soy oil – oh, and the fuel hoses too. Rats, mice and assorted other small chewing animals just LOVE the stuff!
There are all sorts of juicy horror stories about this. One I’m aware of, from around here; a girl in a nearby big city came home to the family farm for the weekend, and parked her new Honda behind the barn. The local wildlife got into the wiring; and after $26,000 worth of repairs (consisting of “We’ll replace THIS wiring bundle, and THESE three computer boxes that the wires shorted-to and burned out…” ad infinitum, as the replaced-and-repowered computers turned on the next boxes further down the line, that then also shorted through their now-uninsulated wires and burned out…), the insurance company finally called it a day and wrote the car off.
I still stubbornly insist that the Law of Unintended Consequences will sound the death knell of the human (?) race, and our epitaph will read “It seemed like a good idea at the time…”
@neonsnake
I don’t know if it’s now privatised in New York, but I know a mate of mine in Seattle pays $160 a month just to get his bins emptied (separate from his $1100ish per month property tax). Seems rather costly to me, all things considered.
Ah Seattle. Used to be one of the loveliest cities in the world, up their with Portland, OR which used to be called “City of Roses”. Not now. They are both socialist hellholes now, unless you live in the rich enclaves, where you can rant in favor of liberal causes while surrounded by a fence and armed guards to keep the riff raff out.
FWIW, my garbage collection costs about $35 a month, or is it $35 every two months? I forget. Which seems pretty reasonable to me.
With the best will in the world, Fraser, I’m going to take the word of a mate I’ve known for 20 plus years, and he certainly doesn’t think he’s living in anything approaching a “socialist hellhole”. He quite likes it.
I suspect one has different bars on what constitutes a “hellhole”, not withstanding his insane cost of living *shrug*
neonsnake – you complained about the high taxes and charges in Democrat run Seattle, but now you seem to be rowing back.
But I AGREE with you that high tax Seattle is not socialist – unlike Pine Ridge, and some other reservations, which clearly are examples of “democratic socialism” with the land communally owned and controlled (along with most other things) by democratically elected tribal councils.
I would rather live in high tax Seattle than in Pine Ridge – but I would rather live in, for example, in Rapid City South Dakota (only an hour or so from Pine Ridge) than either of them.
As for New York City – highest tax burden in United States, but, like Chicago, still drowning in debt.
For those who do not know – the Democrats took control of Seattle in 1969.
MaxG: Thanks, I didn’t think about that.
I’ve slightly adjusted the wording for the sake of cadence and rhythm: I hope you don’t mind.
‘The boys of the council refuse team
Were striking for more pay
And the piles of bags get higher
With every day…’
*shrugs* Not really. I’ve never been there, but my mate – originally from Huddersfield, UK – likes it. I was just somewhat shocked a while back when we were both out of work and discussing “irreducible” living expenses, and his were multiples of mine (like, his were 5-7 times mine, even allowing for exchange rates – obvious nuance in different standards of living, but still), before we’d even talked about groceries and other such variable items.
The obvious solution, regarding his garbage pick-up, would be to club together with the neighbours, everyone put in *an amount* that covers expenses but is far less than what they’re all individually paying, and one person deliver it to the local tip (or whatever it’s known as in the States), and knock the extremely expensive privatised pick-up company out of the loop altogether. They’ve all got those massive pick-up trucks so popular in rural/suburban US, apparently, so it’s physically do-able, but alas, clubbing together with your neighbours just isn’t the done thing, apparently. They’d rather pay through the nose lmao
neonsnake – I agree with you that it seems unfair, because it is unfair, to pay lots of money in taxes to local government and then pay extra to have rubbish collected.
It is getting that way here – as Adult Social Care and Children’s Social Care takes up (by national law) more-and-more of the budget, already people are having to pay to have their garden waste collected.
There are two solutions – either for Birmingham to give up on this “Collective Bargaining” thing (that might well need the repeal of national legislation) and hire people to collect the rubbish and sack them if they refuse to turn up to work, OR for people to give up on the idea of local government and pay private companies to deal with the rubbish.
Taking rubbish to the tip yourself (or in a small group) is not going to work – and who is going to run the tip anyway, they do need to be managed.
So it is either local government (but non-union local government) or a private company – take your pick.
However, “clubbing together”, mutual aid, can work for some things in some places – for example in, I think, Pasadena Texas – most police and fire fighting work is done by unpaid volunteers.
I apologize, I was mistaken – it is just the Fire Department in Pasadena Texas that is volunteer, the Police Department is paid.
Indeed. Where I live now, I pay £60 per annum for my garden waste collection – separate, of course, from my council tax – which is opt-in (err, the garden waste is opt-in, to be clear)
Where I lived previously, it was “free” – by which I mean, it was included in my (higher in that location) council tax. £60 a year isn’t particularly onerous, but if it got to a point where I *did* think it was onerous, I’d stop paying it and do exactly what I suggested upthread – club together with my neighbours and one of us do a tip-run however frequently is appropriate.
The (current) choice isn’t a binary between “local government” and “paying private companies” – it’s more that some people will be happy to pay that £60, and others won’t. The important thing is that it’s voluntary. I’m not, strictly speaking, against paying for public services, but I’d like to be able to tick the boxes on the ones I’m willing to pay for (I don’t have kids. I’d rather it be up to me, for example, if I pay for school-related expenses. I might well, and it’s even likely, decide that I *am*, from a community-spirit point of view, but that should be up to me and my partner).
Mutual aid – given the world that we actually live in – is a bulwark, mostly. It’s also an introduction to a different way of living – what the Wobblies used to call “building a new world in the shell of the old”.
It can’t – currently – replace everything, but that’s not my aim with it *today*. If it can replace 20% of ones’ expenses, then that’s a bloody grand result, as far as I’m concerned.
It’s similar to people who fantasise about going “off-grid” – sure, there’s people who have managed it, probably, but it’s not realistic for most of us, and actually – being entirely self-sufficient is a mug’s game. We’re a co-operative species, not a “rugged individualist” species, and the concept of the “division of labour” exists for very good reasons. So any £1 saved via mutual aid is £1 that isn’t being relied on the good-will of an employer to provide – and that’s inherently and obviously a good thing, even if it’s not “100%” of your outlay.
Re. Collective Bargaining – it’s impossible for me to be pro mutual aid, and also against collective bargaining. I can certainly feel queasy about some of the tactics employed by individual organisations (and I very much do), but in principle, grouping together voluntarily to bargain against people with far more institutionalised power is a key component of Freedom Of Association. It’s not exactly unknown that when the government got involved – by setting terms on appropriate actions, including what is legal and what is not – it was deliberately done to defang the unions, and to mollify them and their members, in favour of corporations.
If you want to remove “state privilege” from Unions, I don’t disagree. But before that, remove “state privilege” from corporations. It’s a classic example of “Oooops, we gave too much privilege to people with shitloads of money! Quick, do something to calm the working class before we get the guillotine!”
Remove the privileges afforded to the capitalist class first, and then I’ll be less pro-union and collective bargaining. Do it the other way, and you’re just funnelling money and power upwards, which presumably is not what anyone wants.
neonsnake – if you like unemployment then support the laws that have given the unions these powers.
Why put scare quotes around the word “privilege” or “privileges” – words I did not use.
Would you like me to be able to put a “picket line” at the entrance of your house and scream abuse at anyone who tried to enter? No – well do not support unions being allowed to do this under the Disraeli Act of 1875 – it did NOT legalize unions (they had long been legal), it gave them POWERS – powers that no one should have. And the 1906 Act made the situation vastly worse.
You want unemployment? Then support these Acts of Parliament – if not then do not support them. Ditto if you like Birmingham being a pile of rubbish riddleds with rats, or people being unable to bury their dead – winter of 1978-1979.
Corporations – there have always been limited liability entities, churches, universities, and, yes, commercial enterprises – where you put in a “stake” of money (you buy a share of the trading enterprise) and only the stake you put up, not your home and so on, is at risk of the trading operation fails.
But it is true that this did NOT use to be the normal way of doing business – the normal way of doing business was that a business, even a very large business, was “unlimited liability” – you, the owner, were liable for all its debts if it failed, and were out on the street (having lost your home and so on) if it failed.
If you want to go back to that, repeal the Victorian legislation that made setting up a limited liability business so much less difficult – FINE, I have NO PROBLEM with repealing the Victorian legislation.
It would do bugger all to help Birmingham, or anywhere else, and it would NOT hurt the “capitalist class” or “reduce inequality” or do any the things you (falsely) think it would do.
In reality it would mean a return to the early 19th century, before the later (Victorian) legislation. Instead of being owned by lots of shareholders, a business (even a very large business) would be owned by one man, or a family or small partnership.
This is because it would be mad to buy shares in an enterprise you did not control, but were still fully liable for any debts it ran up – it would be like being a Lloyds insurance “Name” without actually running the syndicate you were part of.
Some Lloyds insurance syndicates did end up like that – with “names” not understanding that they were fully liable for any payouts the insurance syndicate was liable for, and leaving the running of the insurance syndicate to professional managers – rather than running it themselves (this did not turn out well for the “names” – professional managers are NOT “capitalists” because they do not own the capital, and they could not give a toss about “capitalists”, the “names”, all they care about is collecting their pay and end of year bonus – if the enterprise collapses in a few years, it is not the professional managers who lose their homes to pay off liabilities). If you own an unlimited liability business – then RUN IT YOURSELF, do not trust managers (people who will not lose their homes and be out on the street it if fails) to run it for you. The Economist magazine Corporate manager types are NOT the friends (to put the matter mildly) of the “capitalist class”.
But, I repeat, ending limited liability will not help Birmingham (and it would not reduce inequality or undermine the “capitalist class” either) – only hiring binmen who will actually empty the bins, not “go on strike” will help Birmingham.
So go non union – or stop pretending you care.
Lloyds bank, one of the biggest banks in Britain (and not to be confused with the Lloyds insurance market – a totally different thing) went bust deliberately.
Yes deliberately – Sir Victor Blank, the top manager (but NOT owner – he was no “capitalist”) of Lloyds, bought a bank that was already bankrupt – he did this knowing (yes knowing) that this would break Lloyds – and, even after a bailout, make its shares collapse. He did this to please his friend – Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Some individual shareholders (rather than the pension funds – who are also run by professional managers who despise owners – actual “capitalists”) took him to court – but the courts told them to drop-dead (basically – go off and commit suicide, we, the courts, serve the Progressive Corporate State – we despise the “capitalist class” as much as Neonsnake does, indeed far MORE than he does).
And these days? Well Lloyds has closed its branch in Kettering (my home town – and an area which, including the small towns around it, is about one hundred thousand people) which, at least means customers do not have to watch the Progressive propaganda videos that Lloyds always seemed to have on when you entered the bank.
But Lloyds high command has, of course, issued a statement saying how much it supports “Trans Rights” and condemns the recent court decision saying that women are biological women and that Progressives should stop messing up children.
Their priorities are clear – like other vast corporations, their main priority is Progressive politics (well really their main priority is the pay and perks of high managers – but they are quiet about that, as are the other corporations) – long term earning money for shareholders (“capitalists”) is NOT the priority of this Credit Bubble bank – or for vast corporations in general.
They do not like the “capitalist class”.
The 1844 Act made it much less difficult to set up a company – but shareholders were liable for the full liabilities of the enterprise.
It was the 1855 Act that stated that shareholders were only liable for their shares – they would lose that money, but not their homes and so on.
Perhaps the Act of 1855 should be repealed (after all, even at the time, former Prime Minister Lord Grey, the person who ended slavery in the British Empire, opposed the Act).
But repealing it would not reduce inequality (rather the reverse – as it would mean that large business enterprises would tend to be owned one person, a family or a small partnership).
Nor would it help Birmingham.
What would help Birmingham is hiring binmen who will actually collect bins – and sacking (dismissing) men who will not do the job because they say they are “on strike”.
Do that – or just admit that you do not care about Birmingham, or anywhere else.
Eh?
Have you had a drink or something?